Friendly South Okanagan felines looking for forever homes

Tom Sawyer, held by Makena Thompson found his forever home during a previous adoption fair at PetSmart in conjunction with Critteraid. This year’s fair goes Saturday and Sunday at the Penticton location. (Western News file photo)

Help for the many friendly, homeless felines is coming to a pair of locations in the coming days.

On Friday, at the Critteraid Animal Sanctuary, there will be an appointment-only open house where people can go and tour the facilities and meet some of the many resident cats and kittens who are looking for their forever homes.

As a means to give visitors a personal experience and not overwhelm the adoptees it was decided to have the open house restricted to a limited number of people at a time.

“We want to make sure we’re dedicating enough time to each person who comes up. We still have lots of appointments left and if we need to we’ll extend the hours. We really want to accommodate as many people as we can,” said Jess Byer, Critteraid animal director, who has worked in the rescue business for nearly two decades. “We’re also hoping to do some fundraising because this year kitten season has left us with a lot of orphaned kittens and a lot of financial issues.”

She estimated over half the felines they have are kittens, including 15 in foster care homes for those needing nursing or bottle feeding.

“It is more than usual this year and what we’re finding is a higher increase of orphaned kittens, kittens whose moms have disappeared or are deceased on the road and we have to take them in an bottle feed and care for them,” said Byer.

It’s also hoped this weekend to increase the roster of volunteers Critteraid has to draw from.

“We have over 50 volunteers but that’s never enough,” she said.

For those unable to attend Friday there will be two more opportunties to pick up a cute and cuddley cat or kitten when the Critteraid crew sets up shop for the weekend at PetSmart, one of their working partners.

That takes place for four hours Saturday and Sunday starting at 4 p.m.